In today's civil engineering marketplace, every successful company can be measured by how well it converts information into dollars. Whether readily realized or not, civil engineering can be classified as a distinct segment of the information industry. Civil engineering consulting companies specialize in the collection and processing of information to create plans. These plans, whether on paper or in electronic format, represent the culmination of technical specialist's expertise and decision-making capabilities to process information to create a conceptual product. This conceptual product can then be used to construct the structures seen day to day in our world.
During the last 40 years, the civil engineering industry has witnessed radical changes as different aspects of the design process have been computerized and automated. Today, an enormous amount of information is provided and generated during the creation of plans. As new technology and computing power have become available, the requirements for additional information and processing have increased as well. Over this time span, different aspects of the design process have modernized at different rates. Structural analysis and design programs were the first to be computerized. Drafting processes were modernized by computers nearly a decade later. Only now are more sophisticated approaches to collaborating and delivering civil engineering products being developed. This disparity in modernization has led to a departmentalized design team where little information is in a form that can be shared easily between the engineer, draftsperson, surveyor, and constructor. Often, the same information is created multiple times for each perspective within the design team. This information must be checked separately for each group's perspective and, therefore, runs the risk of error introduction during data transposition.